Show felines some love with a catio

Monday

Sep 11, 2017 at 8:50 AMSep 11, 2017 at 8:50 AM

By Jean Kozubowski Salina Journal

Some say cats live longer and are healthier if they are neutered or spayed and if they are kept inside.

The unfortunate truth is cats don’t always like to be kept inside, especially if they’ve had a taste of the great outdoors. There’s so much more to do out there: illnesses to pick up, traffic to dodge and birds to catch, to the dismay of other animal lovers.

One solution is to provide a catio — or cat patio — to let indoor cats get fresh air and a little exercise.

Brian Freeman has an albino cat, Jackson, that he and his wife, Victoria, found as a kitten hanging around a construction site, completely feral. As an albino Jackson, now 12, can get sunburned, Freeman said.

Freeman built a custom catio for Jackson and their calico cat, Chloe, in a couple of hours. He hung it by himself off a second-floor, double-hung window. Freeman works as a historic preservationist, so it might take others a bit longer, and having a helper is strongly advised. The catio cost about $260 using new materials, plus a cat door.

Freeman started with a 4-foot by 5-foot panel from a wire dog kennel, for the back. The sides, top and bottom are 16-inch by 96-inch wire shelves he cut to fit. He hung three sets of shelving uprights and shelf brackets. He put everything together with 20 hose clamps and screwed it to the house with long screws and fender washers.

He put some of the shelving on the shelf brackets and leftover pieces of carpet on the shelves.

To finish it off, he inserted a cat door into a piece of masonite and used the storm window to hold it in place. When it’s too hot or Jackson has had all the sun he can handle, the Freemans close the double-hung inside window and the cats stay cool in the house.

If this style doesn’t fit with your decor, search the Internet for “catio” and you’ll find plenty of inventive ideas.